Scheduls

I believe one of the biggest lessons a home schooling family can have is a schedule. A schedule serves as guide to the day. Not only does it help us stay on task but it also helps answer that dreaded question from kids "what next". So in our house we have a family schedule. For us it looks like this:

7:30 am – Wake up and get ready for a new day!
Morning Exercise

8:30 am – Breakfast

9:00 am – Morning school
Handwriting
Spelling
English
Reading
Bible

Noon – Lunch

1:00 pm – Afternoon school
Math
Science
History
Japanese
Other

4:00 pm – House pick up

5:00 pm – Dinner

7:00 pm – House pick up

8:00 pm – Showers

Welcome to 2009

Well 2009 is now here and at least in our home school is back in full gear. We want to wish everyone a blessed new year and a blessed home schooling session.

Life is Like Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.

How to bring Advent into your home school.

Happy Advent. I realize not all families are Christian and not all families celebrate Advent. However, for my family we do celebrate Advent and I thought I would take some time to tell you about what we do and why. Who knows maybe you will find something new or something you would like to add to your home school.

For us we have an Advent wreath. I LOVE our advent wreath. I believe I bought it from current, I know I bought it the first year my husband and I were married because I had to have one. Advent was not something my husband really celebrated so this was new to him, and like the good hubby he is, he particpated. Advent has now become just as imporant to him as it is to me.

For our family every night we join around the table and light our Advent wreath and sing the song "Light the Advent Candle" and we read from our devotion. Now for us each year our devotion changes, based on what I find I like that year.

This year I did find a very cool source: http://miikogibson.com/advent_study.htm if you click on the weeks you can get a complete weekly packet for kids dealing with advent and the bible.

Columbus Day

Well today is Columbus Day in the United States. Today is the day we honor Christopher Columbus and his discovery of America. Although my oldest daughter will remind you that others found this area before Mr. Columbus, thank you history for that lesson!

So what did you do in your home school for Columbus Day?

Today for us we read some books about Columbus and his travels. We set up a ship and went on our own discovery of America in the living room. We made paper boats as well as Columbus hats.

I believe all holiday's should be studied and incorporated into our home school, this is just one way to help make history relevant to today's world.

So in honor of today......HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!

Oh and for any readers from Canada....HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Joys of Cutting

Have you ever noticed how much kids love to cut with scissors! Oh my gosh I have really noticed this recently. My, now 3 year old, loves to sit and cut for hours if I would let him.

So I was thinking how can we make cutting into fun and learning.

I found a book called Preschool Skills this book is great way to work on cutting. There are several pages on cutting. For instance the most recent page we completed at co-op was of a car. The car is at the top of the page and we have the road going back and forth on the page. The idea is to cut on the road. Thus you are working on cutting in straight lines and going up and down, back and forth.

How easy it is to make up pages very similar to this one. Just take a sheet of paper and draw a few lines on it in various ways. Have your child cut the lines you have created.

Cutting it is a good thing!

History

I remember learning History/Social Studies in school. I remember learning maps of the world and about different parts of the world. I remember reading text books about government and laws. With this memory also come a dislike for the way it was taught to me. History in school for me was boring. It was one of those "I have to do this" type classes.

Thank gosh for home schooling and freedom we have. Here at the Pierce Family School we use the series "Story of the World"

As their web site reads:

The Story of the World is an award-winning resource for families looking for a history curriculum they can fall in love with. Told in the straightforward, engaging style that has become Susan Wise Bauer's trademark, this four-volume set covers the sweep of human history from ancient times until the present. Africa, China, Europe, the Americas — find out what happened all around the world in long-ago times. This read-aloud series is designed for parents and teachers to share with elementary school children. Enjoy it together and introduce your child to the marvelous story of the the world's civilizations.

This is our second year of using this series and each time we do our history lesson I always have the same comment "If history was taught to me in the way it is to my children I would have loved it."

The chapters go in chronological order of events. Each chapter is told in a way that you can feel like you are really living in the time period. With each chapter there is a map activity to help with map skills as well as understand the world during the time period. Each lesson included craft activities as well as other projects and reading to enhance the learning.

Take a new look at history and you may soon discover that "This isn't the same old History."